CCTV footage shows a person walking with a sword near Jacinda Ardern's Auckland office this morning. Video / Superstart Batteries
A woman charged with smashing the Prime Minister's electorate office with a samurai sword says she suffers from a painful illness and is "declaring war on the government" for not looking after her.
The 57-year-old Coatesville woman appeared at the Auckland District Court this afternoon to face a charge of causing intentional damage.
"I've been through different ministers, different governments and the Prime Minister promised to look after me," she said, visibly agitated.
Police arrested the woman on Thursday after a glass door at Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's electorate office in Mt Albert was smashed at about 8.20am.
The woman told the court she wanted to be named, but her lawyer Hayden Geddes sought interim name suppression to allow her mental health condition to be fully assessed.
"I don't want name suppression. I want everybody to know," she said from the dock where she was seated between several police officers.
The front door was smashed in an attack on the Prime Minister's Morningside electorate office in Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell
A forensic nurse who assessed the woman told the court she had a history of health issues and conflict with government departments over funding, and things came to a head in the form of her "declaration of war with the government".
Judge Philip Recordon granted her interim name suppression until her next court appearance in two weeks.
He also granted her bail on condition that she was not to go within 100 metres of the Prime Minister's electorate office in Mt Albert, and to have no contact with weapons and explosive devices.
At the end of the hearing, the woman's lawyer tried to give her an AT HOP card to get home but was told the bus stopped kilometres away from where she lived.
"They haven't given me any food to eat, I need to go home before I pass out," she said, and was given money to take a taxi.
In a call to the New Zealand Herald newsroom yesterday, a woman claimed she had used a sword and smashed the window 10 times before shoving a smoke bomb into the office.
She claimed she had been engaged in longstanding grievances with the Prime Minister's office and various government departments over health and living issues which were repeatedly "palmed off".
She also claimed she had warned staff beforehand.
Nobody was in the office at the time and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is in Antarctica.
